I had a banner broccoli harvest and made a gigunda batch of cream of broccoli soup for the freezer in anticipation of the cooler days to come.

In keeping with the theme, I thought it best to continue to share the notes and musing from the local CSA farmers. Again, Elizabeth Keen from Indian Line Farms pulls it together in rare and exquisite form for her members. Here's her weekly summary:News From Indian Line FarmWe keep on planting, weeding and harvesting here. Last week we planted another lettuce planting which will be salad in your mouths the first week of September. We also planted the second to last round of direct seeded items: arugula, mustard mixes, spinach, white and red turnips, and broccoli rabe to name a few. We also harvested all the storage onions which are now curing on the upper level of the barn. Every day is harvest day now. And our job just got a little heavier with the outdoor tomatoes blushing before our eyes. On Monday alone we harvested over 500 lbs. of tomatoes and we have to harvest them three times per week. Time for making tomato everything!

The farm is looking especially great after last week as we had several visitors. On Sunday night we let a foursome of Appalachian through hikers tent here. They were interested in a work for food exchange that we do on occasion. The worked intently on weeding our smallest greenhouse in its entirety, helping out in our perennial gardens and lastly, clipping the stems off all the over 6000 bulbs of dry garlic. It was a hot day and they worked really hard. They kept me busy directing and with some additional food preparation. They eat so much!!! They said as I took them to the trail head the following day that their day off here was their best day off on the trail so far. We felt lucky to have them.

They next day we had a group from GreenAgers working here. GreenAgers was launched from The Center For Peace Through Culture in 2007 as one way to address global and local environmental issues. Taken from their website: GreenAgers mobilizes and empowers young people to come together and work cooperatively to design and carry out environmental projects in their own their local communities. Through this program, young people can not only make a real difference, they can also learn independence, creativity, leadership, responsibility and self-respect. As they develop their own interests and abilities, they are also promoting community and global health, and ultimately contributing to global peace. Community involvement is a strong emphasis of GreenAgers, as the intellectual, spiritual, creative, and physical energies of young people focus on projects that will make a difference to the local communities and to the environment.

The first local GreenAgers group has an office in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, headed by Will Conklin. The Great Barrington GreenAgers' plans include setting up a community garden, hosting a monthly Sustainability Discussion Group on how individuals can integrate sustainability practices into their everyday lives, working together with other organizations and schools on new or existing projects, and creating a program of educational environmental presentations conceived, researched and written by students and delivered in classrooms and community spaces. They also plan to have a lot of fun!

The Great Barrington GreenAgers is a pilot program, laying the groundwork for GreenAgers groups around the country and around the globe.

Working with them was a pleasure. They finished harvesting the end of our first carrot planting, they pulled all our storage onions from the field and put them in the upstairs of the barn and they helped out with some weeding too. Big thanks to Will Conklin for organizing our work day and introducing us to this fantastic organization.

And if that weren't enough we had many folks come to weed and clean garlic on Wednesday. We are thrilled!

A couple reminder notes: 1. Please bring your own bags to pick up. We no longer have any recycled plastic bags. 2. Food leftover from Friday pick up will all be put away by 10:00 am Saturday morning. 3. We will be weeding Wednesday August 18th from 8-12. We look forward to your company. 4. We will have numerous boxes of tomatoes for processing this week. The boxes are $15 for 15 lbs. of tomatoes.

What is the most anticipated fruit of the summer season? The TOMATO!!
And yes it is a fruit not a vegetable. Today, host, Carole Murko chats with Lawrence Davis-Hollander, author of TOMATO, A Fresh-from-the-Vine Cookbook. Lawrence’s interest in the tomato and, in particular, heirloom tomatoes started at an early age and evolved into his founding the Eastern Native Seed Conservancy - an organization that was dedicated to preserving and eating heirloom varieties. How we wish Heirloom Meals existed when Lawrence’s organization thrived - the synergies and the dinner parties would have been amazing!! WIth that said, Lawrence captures the essence of his work at the seed conservancy and his passion for heirloom tomatoes in his book. It is informative, inspirational, useful and beautiful! Be certain that the Cream of Tomato Soup and the Candied-Tomato Tart with Five-Spiced Hazelnut Crust will be prepared and shared in a future blog post!! Go out and find those heirloom tomatoes, get Lawrence’s book and enjoy eating tomatoes to your heart’s content!!

(Please forgive the quality of the audio - the station has had technical challenges and this was recorded from the live stream from my computer. I don’t know how to edit out the end of the last show - so enjoy the music and wait for my show to start!! The joys of community radio!!)

He's quite tame for a rooster. He does, however, suffer from the Napolean syndrome as he plays tough guy with our big white rooster, Whitey. Not sure why Whitey allows Buddy to bully him. I guess I'll never know!!

I have contacted the farms and purveyors with my orders, rented tables and chairs, sewed my table runners and have begun the preparations. It's a frenzy of activity around here!!

Yesterday I made peach nectar and lemon simple syrup for the cocktails.

Peach Nectar for our Peachy Keen Martini’s

I wanted to serve a “special” cocktail for this event. With the gorgeous and delicious local peaches that are currently in season, I decided to concoct some peach nectar to be mixed with Berkshire Mountain Distillers Ice Glen Vodka. What better to way to celebrate local everything!!

10 Ripe Peaches from Maynard Farm

3 cups water

Boil a large pot of water and put the peaches in the water for about 5 minutes until the skin is ready to peel off. Remove the peaches into a cold water bath to stop the cooking process. The skin should easily peel off the peach. Slice and remove pit. In batches, put 2 cups of sliced peaches and 1 cup of water in a blender until smooth. Strain and store in refrigerator until the PARTY!!

Simple Lemon Syrup

I am addicted to limonata. But I just bought a Sodastream carbonator and thought, why not make limonata for vodka and limonatas or just limonata. Here’s my recipe:

4 cups organic cane sugar

4 cups water

Zest of a couple of lemons

3 cups fresh lemon juice

Simple syrup is simple - it’s one part sugar to one part water. Cook sugar, water and lemon zest over medium-high heat until sugar is dissolved and water boils. Remove and let cool. Add lemon juice and store in refrigerator until the PARTY!! I tried about 1/2 cup of syrup with the liter bottle that comes with the Sodastream and it seemed to do the trick - YUM!!

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
For the "stuffing"
Cook corn and remove from cob. Prepare Quinoa according to the package instructions. Saute over medium heat chopped leaks in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until soft, add corn and tomatoes, chopped garlic until golden, add quinoa, basil, salt and pepper.

Scored Zucchini Flesh

Clean zucchini, cut in half crosswise then lengthwise. With the point of your knife, score the flesh into cubes and then scoop out and add to your stuffing mixture, continue to saute for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat and set aside.

Place zucchini shells in a baking dish with a little water, cover with tin foil and put in center of the oven for 10 minutes to "cook" the shells a little. Remove from oven, and carefully add stuffing to each zucchini shell, pressing stuffing in with the back of a spoon. Once stuffed, liberally sprinkle the top with cheese and return to oven for 15 minutes until cheese is melted and golden.

Well...for whatever reason Farm Girl Farm's newsletter is not readily available to share and because today is the day dedicated to farming I thought I'd speak of my garden's bounty and introduce you to Indian Line Farm - the first CSA in the country. Elizabeth Keen runs quite an efficient and beautiful farm. Every time I pick up my share I am just in AWE!!

Out of my patch of dirt this week I harvested potatoes, onions and will be picking some broccoli for dinner tonight. This time of year is so fulfilling and healthy. I have become a veritable vegetarian. Tonight I plan on concocting stuffed zucchini with quinoa, fresh corn, cherry tomatoes, leeks and basil. Served up with a side salad of delicate Indian Line Farm greens and we are in veggie HEAVEN!!

And now: News From Indian Line Farm c/o Elizabeth KeenWhat a great summer we have been having! Warm sunny weather making it great for afternoon/early evening swims. No need for the rain gear like last year when they never dried out between rain storms. But wow has it been hot! We always start out the mornings with rain pants just to keep the dew off our pants, but this year we can't get them off soon enough before it feels like we are sitting in a sauna. And the sweat by midday is dripping down our backs with such vigor that we have decided Indian Line Farm should open a gym. We can supply all the ingredients to good health: cardiovascular workout; strengthening by regularly carrying 40 # bins and buckets; and stretching, bending and reaching for flexibility. Honestly, today the heat got me down. We need a big rain. Everything is really dry. I can't really irrigate everything that really needs it. I noticed the leaves on the corn on route 23 curling to maintain moisture. The HousatonicRiver is low enough that is some places we had to get out and push our canoe on Sunday.

Heat makes me think of zucchini. We have a lot right now as we are still harvesting from our 1st planing which is still going strong and our second planting is gorgeous and putting out green beauties. On Friday alone, we harvested 308# of squash and zucchini. In response I had an all zucchini dinner: savory zucchini pancakes topped with sour cream and fresh tomatoes and for dessert a double chocolate zucchini cake. Marvelous! I was going to make a raw zucchini salad, but decided against it. I have included several zucchini recipes for you too, to enjoy this week. And watch out if you park too long in the lot, you might find an extra zucchini in your front seat!